Tag: planning

If you read my posts on my goals for 2018, then you know that one of my most important goals for this year is to write as much as possible. As such, I will be creating a great deal of content for this blog. I have exciting plans for the year ahead, including:

1. I will post entries on general topics at least twice per week, on Tuesdays and Fridays.

I have loads of ideas for potential series, such as:

Living with cancer and surviving during chemotherapy

Mental health and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)

Techniques and tools for self-improvement

Career development and learning new skills (mostly depends on how I’m feeling)

“Me and …” where I discuss significant developments in my life and how I currently feel about them

My de-cluttering journey

Progress updates on my goals for 2018

2. I will post reviews of video games I play, books and manga I read, and TV series and movies I watch.

At the moment, I have the Media Round-up format, where I plan to write 2-4 short reviews and post them in one long entry per week. This format makes sense for now as I like to keep album reviews short and a lot of the other media I have been consuming has been on the shorter side. I may change this format in the future, however, depending on whether I feel like I’m able to say what I want to say without writing posts that are 2000 words long. It’s possible that I may write a few more substantial reviews as regular Tuesday/Friday posts if I feel like whatever I am reviewing deserves a little more attention.

3. I will be updating the visual style.

I’m quite new to WordPress and I’m terrible at web design, but I would like to experiment with customizing Stand and see if I can make it a bit more representative of my personality. I think the experience will be valuable for me and make the blog look a lot nicer. It’s not bad right now, just very simple, and I think it could look much better.

4. Include more images.

I have never been a photo taking person, but I would like to start learning a bit more about photography and including more photographs and images into Stand’s content. I also plan to start actually using my Instagram account, which I hope to integrate into the site.

I am so excited to get started on making Stand something that I can really be proud of. I hope that all of you reading this will be able to learn something new or find something to entertain you here. Let’s have a creative and peaceful 2018!

Today I’ll be continuing my short series on my goals for 2018! If you missed the first post, please read it here.

6. Care for myself mentally.

It’s no secret that I have issues with depression and anxiety and my current health crisis means that I will have to work at looking after my mental health this year. I will have my bad days, but it is imperative that I keep up a positive (or at least neutral) attitude more consistently than usual. I have several plans to assist me in accomplishing this. First, I have been referred to the BC Cancer Agency’s counselling department, so I will be getting some professional help that is designed specifically to assist me in coping with cancer and treatment. Second, some of the aspects of my journaling routine are focused upon positive thinking, affirmations, and gratitude. Third, I have loads of video games to play, books to read, TV shows to watch and a forum to express how I feel about them. I’m the most excited about that part! Fourth, it is my hope that I will finally start working through the CBT (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy) workbook that I purchased earlier this year when I had my first panic attack.

7. Learn Something New

As I said in Goal #2 (Write as much as possible), it is my hope that I will be able to devote some small amount of time during time off examining how I can make career change to something that is more flexible and location neutral. While I know that I can probably make some income with freelance writing, I would like to explore some other avenues that might be a bit more fruitful. I plan to research and take some courses via educational websites such as Skillshare to see what kinds of skills will be necessary to obtain the kind of job that I want. I’ve always been a fan of throwing myself up steep learning curves and I feel like now is a good time to start.

While I am enthusiastic about this goal I am, unfortunately, not certain how much I will be able to work on it. My ability to take courses and learn things might be diminished by chemotherapy side effects. I’m willing to give it a try, however, and I know that, from a practical perspective, it will be easier to do this when I am not working full time.

8. Create and maintain tidy spaces in my home that I can be happy spending a lot of time in.

I am an extraordinarily messy person. Super organized and terribly messy. While my messiness is consistent, it tends to get a lot worse when I’m depressed. I would like to work toward making a significant change in this area in 2018. While I am in treatment, I will not be returning to work, thus I will be at home most of the time. If I’m going to spend most of my time in my office and my bedroom, I think it’s important that I try to keep them tidy so that I will enjoy my spaces and feel less stressed out and sad that they’re a mess. I’m not exactly sure how I’ll be accomplishing this one, but I will start making some more specific plans and strategies over the next week or so. I do already have some de-cluttering projects in mind.

9. Leave the house to work at least once per week.

This depends a bit on how I’m feeling, but I think it’s important for me to try and get out of the house at least a few times per week. I can get a lot of work done in a few hours of crowd buzz and good music, so it’s worth it for me to get out and work in a coffee shop or somewhere similar. I have a great little Chrome book that’s great for basic writing and web browsing on the go. It’s my hope that I’ll be able to get out and work more than once per week, but I like to keep my goals as manageable and realistic as possible.

10. Be supportive of and express gratitude to my partner and maintain a healthy and loving relationship.

A serious illness like cancer can have a significant impact on your romantic relationships. Right now, my illness consumes a lot of my time and energy and it’s important to me that I don’t allow it to bleed too much into my relationship. Of course, I will share my thoughts and feelings with him and I am counting on him to listen to me, be respectful, and provide love and moral support. What I can’t do, however, is forget that he also needs love and moral support — I plan to do my best to make sure that his needs are being met and that everything isn’t about me being sick.

Have you set your goals yet for 2018? Is there anything that you’re hoping to accomplish this year? Leave a comment and let me know or message me privately — I’m interested to hear about what you’d like to get up to. Let’s all have a better year than we did in 2017!